Antitrust Chairman: NBC Threatens Free TV

NBC asked Olympics viewers to prove they had a cable or satellite subscription before they could watch some videos of their exclusive coverage online.Herbert Kohl, chairman of a U.S. Senate antitrust panel, is wondering if NBC Universal’s Olympics coverage, in which they held back special coverage for paid users, is just the beginning.

Now that the company is bidding to merge with Comcast, “I fear that this practice of locking up certain content only for pay-TV subscribers may be a preview of what is to come,” Kohl wrote in a Feb. 26 letter to NBC Universal President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Zucker, according to Bloomberg.

Kohl, a Democrat, and other critics of the merge say the deal “could test the future of free television,” according to Bloomberg. Both Comcast and NBCU executives have said they would follow the FCC’s rules and regulations.